Thursday, February 16, 2017

Sit Quietly: Focus and Forget

"Teach us to care and not to care.Teach us to sit still."- T.S. Eliot"You are sitting on the earth and you realize that this earth deserves you and you deserve this earth. You are there - fully, personally, genuinely."- Chogyam Trungpa"Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet."- Franz Kafka"Sit quietlyfocus and forgetrest with the great achievement.The ancient child asks"what is the great achievement?"It is beyond description in any languageit can only be felt intuitivelyit can only be expressed intuitively. Engage a loose, alert, and awarebody, mind, and soundthen look into the formlessand perceive no thing.See yourself as a spheresmall at firstgrowing to encompassthe vastness of infinite space. Sit quietlyfocus and forget thenin a state of ease and restsecure the truth of the great achievement.Employing the truth will not exhaust its powerwhen it seems exhausted it is really abundantand while human art will die at the hands of utilitythe great achievement is beyond being useful.Great straightness is curved and crookedgreat intelligence is raw and sillygreat words are simple and naturally awkward. Engaged movement drives out the frozen coldmindful stillness subdues the frenzied heart.Sit quietlyfocusingforgettingsummon order from the voidthat guides the ordering of the universe."- Tao Te Ching, Chapter 45, Translated by John Bright-Fey, 2006"There are many matters and many circumstances in which consciousness is undesirable and silence is golden, so that secrecy can be used as a marker to tell us that we are approaching the holy."- Gregory Bateson, Angels FearSitting in the GardenZuowang MeditationSpirituality and Nature